'Winning Lines' printed from http://nrich.maths.org/

This article discusses a small group of activities taken from the Mathematical Games Archive on the NRICH site. They all have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic thinking and reasoning as well as ideas of analogy and isomorphisms. Students at all levels of ability and age can access them. At the most basic level, they offer opportunities for practising
arithmetical skills. At a higher level, they can be used to promote mathematical discussion by demanding detailed and reasoned explanations for a winning strategy, or an explanation of the mathematics that links the games.

Suggested Progression

These games can be tackled in any order, but we suggest the order given below:

Links

Several of the games link into one another. One suggestion is given below. Can you describe the similarities between all of these games?

Links with the UK Framework

The following objectives are to be found in the Frameworks for teaching mathematics for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, and apply to the activities in this theme.